This Sustainable Life

Since our first episode, I've been talking about these mayors choosing to pick up garbage. I believe that a man never stands so tall as when he bends down to pick up another person's garbage.How many U.S. politicians can you name who bend down to pick up other people's garbage? Yet how many American streets, waterways, and beaches do you see covered with garbage? It wasn't always this way. We are letting it happen on our watch.I hope Jerry and Buddy start a new trend among politicians. Get your hands dirty to make our nation and cities clean. If people we know don't do it, such as elected officials, we won't in general.But if they do, we will---which will make them leaders, which they want.Politicians, get votes by cleaning up your neighborhoods.Yourself.Show that doing so doesn't make you dirty. It makes our world clean. It enables people.Your constituents want your leadership. They want clean neighborhoods. I believe you'll get votes by bringing cleanliness to them. You'll make yourself more approachable.In this conversation you'll hear two people leading by example, with humility, at no cost, on something everyone wants for their community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I just finished an eye-opening book, Countdown, by Alan Weisman. It covers population.Weisman traveled to and reported on about a dozen places' views and practices on population and family planning.In this episode, I read a few passages that I found shocking. I barely scratch the book's surface, but I believe you'll find the sections equally noteworthy. I recommend reading the rest to understand this integral part of our world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People resist environmental projects to protect jobs, even to keep producing products that pollute.My absurd proposal to balance jobs with junk: put factories next to landfills. Despite it being absurd, the proposal would create a cleaner world.Instead of making junk as a pretense for some counterproductive welfare, let's stop making it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What emotions do you associate with environmental action?I find people associate shame and guilt with it. I find these emotions lead people to suppress the emotions and hide the behavior leading to it.I propose reacting to pollution and polluting behavior with disgust. If someone hands me a plastic bottle of water, I feel disgust. I propose replacing the terms they've come up in Sweden for flight shame with flight disgust. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of my main goals for this podcast is to bring people who love acting on one's environmental values, seeing stewardship not as an obligation but as being a part of something greater than yourself, than any of us, benefiting everyone, and yourself.As you'll hear, Tia's roots precede the first Earth Day. Her father started it. Despite so many problems remaining -- basically all of them -- she's the opposite of jaded. She's enthusiastic. Her joy, even in the face of setbacks, and as a democratic politician in Wisconsin, she's faced big ones lately, tells me the joy anyone feels from nature -- walks on the beach, picking apples, whatever you love about experiencing nature -- is available to anyone.In other words, if you act more, you'll love it. As you'll hear, you'll very likely influence others, who will thank you.I love hearing the transformation from talking about potential to determined action. I love hearing the transformation from talking about individual action in the abstract to individual action.</p> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learning that humans only recently developed the concept of extinction. Much of the West, for example, believed in a Great Chain of Being, spontaneous generation, and a biblical flood.That perspective suggests that many past behaviors we consider unconscionable may have seemed even humane then, like walking up to a rhinoceros and shooting it in the head. If you can't imagine it going extinct because new ones will form, how is shooting it point blank any different than slaughtering any other animal?Since we are in future generations' pasts, how might they see our polluting behavior? If they live in messes we created, won't they likely see us as we see people shooting rhinoceroses point blank---that is, with horror?Does understanding others with compassion lead us to act with compassion? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tired of people saying what you do doesn't matter? Or personal action in general?They're confusing different types of action. In this recording I distinguish three of them so you can feel comfortable acting by your values without the naysayers and navel-gazers distracting you.The three categories arePersonal action, like avoiding packaged foodLeading others, like hosting a podcastInfluence one's local community, like sharing joyDistinguishing them protects me from feeling dissuaded when others confuse one person not polluting with that person trying to change the world. Nobody says, "why do you bother not murdering? You can't stop everyone from doing it." Yet they still say, "why bother avoiding meat? People will still do it."They're confusing personal action with leading others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I talk a lot about the lack of leadership in the area of the environment. Many people talk about change but don't lead it. Many others judge but don't support, which leads people to hold back on trying.Well, the mayors of Orlando and Orange County Florida went out of their way and found me. Most guests I seek out. Instead, they took it on themselves to put themselves out there, risking judgment on an issue they don't have to.Most don't, I believe because it makes them feel exposed and vulnerable. But a top trait of effective leaders is that they like accountability.You don't have to make acting environmentally you main focus, but the start is to act, which they've done. From a leadership perspective for a public figure to step forward achieves more than whatever the outcome of his or her first step.If what they do seems hard, Jerry and Buddy's swimming upstream will make it easier so all who follow feel like they're swimming downstream.I intend to help them make personal action a trend among leaders, which will lead to group action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why a military general? Isn't the US military one of the greatest polluters on the planet?My goal is to bring effective leadership to the environment and your life because spreading facts, figures, doom, and gloom isn't doing it. Leadership is about people. Technology and innovation have historically increased pollution, as I described in other episodes. Nearly everyone promoting technological solutions is unwittingly continuing the drive toward efficiency that created our environmental situation and continues to augment it.They miss that increasing efficiency doesn't necessarily lower total waste, which is our problem, as a glance at any plastic-covered beach or Beijing sky will attest. Again: efficiency has overall increased total waste.I invited Rip after reading about the Millennium Challenge, where, in preparation for Desert Storm, the military invited him to come out of retirement to lead the "red team"---a ragtag group to fight the "blue team", representing the 21st century US military strategy using every advantage they could---technology, data, weaponry, size, intelligence, and so on.It sounded like a setup---not a test but a cake walk to showcase what they considered an unstoppable, titanic force.Titanic might be the best term because he mopped up the floor with them. I'll put links in the text for write-ups on this historic David and Goliath exchange.You'll hear in this conversation why they so miscalculated and how he saw things differently that worked. More importantly, I hope to focus you on the value of focusing on people.Rip shares the inside story you won't find in those accounts. I was rivited, and he built it up from talking about his beginnings as a lieutenant, learning strategy like Von Clausewitz that remains timeless, US military development since WWII and Vietnam.If the relevance to the environment isn't obvious, I'll clarify. Acting environmentally means facing an apparently unstoppable juggernaut. It's not CO2, plastic, and mercury but the beliefs and goals driving people to keep doing what they used to---meat, flying, having as many kids as they feel like, buying SUVs, and so on.Everyone who says that's human nature is confusing following a system. Systems can change. Growth wasn't always a goal, nor did people ship their garbage halfway around the world, nor did it take centuries to decompose. Cultures that had to deal with their garbage learned to live sustainably.So can we. We can learn from Rip's teamwork, historical knowledge, vision, and all the things that make up leadership to lead ourselves and humanity to overcome our Goliath: the beliefs keeping us doing what got us here.Rip has made a big impression on me. I don't know what makes a general. Talking to him, I think it means learning at a cultural level, or learning deeply about people.I think we who want to influence human effects on the environment can learn from this experience and view. He talked about senior leadership. In my view, we lack senior leadershipPBS Frontline interview with Paul Van RiperPBS Nova interview, The Immutable Nature of WarWikipedia on the Millennium Challenge 2002 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The loudest voices these days seem to come from protesters because they design their actions for attention. They aren't necessarily the most effective.Many of us are outraged. Our emotions become intense. Emotional intensity drives us to do what we want most, which doesn't necessarily lead to what's effective. As I see it, people are venting more than leading.I criticize the lack of leadership around the environment because people overwhelmingly spread facts, figures, doom, gloom, and telling people what to do. In no area besides the environment do effective leaders say, "Here's how to lead: spread facts, figures, doom, gloom, and tell people what to do."Effective leadership works when based on the views and motivations of the person you're leading. For many that's uncomfortable. But it works.Fred and EDF's sober, thoughtful approach of working with big business is accessing the biggest potential change and leading them.I wrote a friend on a group geared toward confrontation:They seemed heavy on demands. I hope that style works for them. It felt domineering to me. I consider protest important. At the same time, I consider it important to offer help to people and organizations we'd like to change but that don't know how to on their own, which is my strategy. One of my definitions of leadership is to help people do what they want to but don't know how.Fred and Environmental Defense Fund's strategy isn't designed for maximum attention, but for maximum effect in one area---in particular, those with large potential for change, even those not appearing environmental. This strategy is close to mine.Without organizations like EDF helping, companies that could change might instead protect themselves by hiding potential problems. I've been trying to meet Exxon, for example, but the "Exxon Knew" campaign motivates them to protect themselves and hide information. That campaign may be for the best, I don't know, but I see the need to offer a hand too, to help them come up with strategies they couldn't have.EDF does more that just work with corporations. For example, they're launching a satellite to detect emissions. Having helped launch a satellite as part of my PhD, I love the audacity and effectiveness.In my conversation with Fred, I focused on the leadership part, but we cover more, including his personal background and EDF's.After you listen, I recommend applying to EDF's internship he described. Organize, vote, and lead politicians, corporate executives, and others with authority to act environmentally.By the way, I met Fred Krupp, the head of the Environmental Defense Fund, through past guest, Bob Langert, McDonald's former head of corporate social responsibility.The Making of a Market-Minded Environmentalist, in Strategy+Business Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.